Hunting/Fishing hut

[The Happy Kaboomer]

Very nice!

[220]

Has been a while since I updated this thread, not a lot of progress to be seen but things are still moving along slowly.
When son was home in January we put a few floor boards down as well as getting the bearers and joist down. Despite thinking the boards were well seasoned we had a little shrinkage and ended up with gaps up to 1/4" between them after about 3 months. A few weeks ago I pulled them up and relayed them along with the rest of the boards cut back in January, I was one board short of getting all the hut section floor down.
With this lot of boards we cut them to the maximum width we could from the slabs some were 16" or more, we ran into a few problems with the wide boards splitting and cupping and I had to rip them down narrower to remove the splitting and reduce the cupping.
With that in mind I have ripped all the most recent boards down to a little over 6", Hopefully it reduces the splitting and cupping and I will do a final rip to 6" once fully seasoned.
Current plan is for me to try and get all the timber cut and give it some time to season fully then get stuck into the build christmas time when son is home.
Have also been slowly clearing the blackberries woody weeds sprayed over summer and burnt timber across the creek from what will be the front of the hut. Slow going, I must have dropped 50 trees that need cutting, pilling and burning. Most of it is what we call swamp gum. as often as not it is a little pulpy in the center so not much use as firewood or anything else.
Have a nice little creek flat of about an acre cleared, it gives us access to get in and spray more blackberries next summer and continue clearing a bit more. I will throw a bit of pasture seed about that should make it a bit more attractive to the local deer population and keep dreaming about shooting one off the deck. Worst case I have a nice little area to plink from the deck with a rimfire or shoot a few clays.

Current timber I have milled and sawn, mix on the left some 8x4 for beams 4x4 post but mainly 4x2 for framing, boards on the right more than it looks as there is nearly 150 lineal yards.


Looking across the creek from what will be the front of the hut where I have been clearing

[Vaquero]

Looking good there 220, I'd say it's coming along nicely.
Be neat when you get to harvest that first deer from the porch.
I'd say the grass will be nice addition and probably a great attraction from the neighboring wildlife.

RP

[220]

A bit more slabbing and sawing done so I am still making steady progress.
Shot a sambar spiker Saturday less than 100m from the hut, if there were no trees obstructing might have been possible to take the shot from the hut.
Sambar are a big deer close to elk in size, gutted and left to hang overnight off the tractor to set given our overnight temps are currently below freezing. Broke it down and hung in the cool room Sunday morning. Cooked up the tenderloins last night, pan seared medallions with a blueberry and balsamic sauce, mash, steamed green beans and carrots. Son and daughter are both currently at home, not a crumb left on anyones plate.

Have to love hunting on the farm, no back breaking carry outs no trying to field dress them on the ground no rush to process them. Just go get the tractor, into the cool room and do it at your leisure. Will probably bring a quarter home each day for the rest of the week and process it at home of an evening instead of doing it at the farm.

[daytime dave]

It sounds like a delicious meal 220. Good for you.

[220]

Managed a bit more milling and sawing this week, ran out of daylight to get the last of it transported to site and stacked but did get a bit of a stock take done. Allowing 10% for waste and rejects by my calculations only need another dozen rafters and a dozen wall studs.
Hopefully I can find a bit of time before the end of the month to get it done.

Had venison schnitzels last night from last weekend spiker, they were just as good as the pan seared medallions.
Gave some to a friend in his 80's who struggles to hunt now days, he phoned me yesterday morning to tell me he and his wife had some for dinner and they were delicious so good he cooked another for breakfast.

[220]

Ended up carting and stacking the rest of the timber I have milled the past week at the hut site today.
Snapped a progress picture for anyone interested, it is starting to look like an impressive pile now

[220]

My blue thunder chinese MS660 clone was only just enough saw to get the last few logs today.
92cc saw with a 30" bar, didnt run a tape across it but would be about 5 feet across, only gets bigger for the remainder of the trunk.

[dave77]

Wow, 30" x 2 = 60" ÷ 12" = 5'. You were definitely at the limit for that saw, impressive.

[220]

Son took this photo earlier in the week when we were doing a little milling on the logs. Only some initial cuts as I am waiting for a 3 foot bar to arrive as the logs are to big for my current setup.
Had some sheep work to do later in the day and had my kelpie dog with us, he could see sheep half a mile away and was super keen to start work.

[220]

Still making slow if steady progress slabbed a bit more timber yesterday afternoon and this morning, ran out of fuel with about 3 slabs to go. Everything in the picture is from a single log,


One thing that would be handy even during the build would be a toilet so went through the steel pile and made a start.
Just a long drop but better than squatting in the paddock 40x40 rhs frame sitting on 150x50. Can get about 1200mm with the posthole auger so that will do for a pit. Can just pick the whole thing up on forks and move it to a new hole as needed.


With the odd warmer day I have managed to get a couple of coats of paint on some of the window, one more coat and I can refit the glass and put them back together

[Hatchdog]

That’s going to be a mighty fine biffer you’re building.

[220]

Son should be home next week for a month or more, I have been steadily getting bits and pieces done so we can get stuck into the build.
Finally got around to building a rough bridge on an old forestry track that has been unused for decades which will give us a second access track to this part of the farm.
Just 4 bearers across the creek, logs layed at 90 degrees and a bit of soil and gravel over the top to level it out. Photos are a bit deceptive bearer logs are 20-24" and close to 10y in length, deck logs are 16-20". Deck is about 4y above the water, shouldnt have any issues with flooding as the catchment area is only a few hundred acres. Have had 90 hp tractor over it towing tipping tralier with 3-4 ton of gravel a dozen time or more without a problem so it should do the job



I went through all the boards I had milled and sawed them to final size, reject rate was higher than I was anticipating at around 30%, Twisting bowing, pulpy sections, cupping knots etc, Should be able to salvage a bit out of them but will only be short length's.
Still enough for me to get the front deck down, a bit of variation in thickness, a thicknesser would be nice to even them up but have to work with what I have so just evened up the joins and removed any high spots with a plane.
I keep needing to remind myself it is a rustic cabin build and good enough is good enough it does not need to be perfect.


Next job is to start sawing some of the structural timber to final size.

[Hatchdog]

That bridge certainly looks stout and well tested too.

[220]

Have made some really good progress in a few days this week, son arrived home Sunday so I have had an offsider.
We have the majority of the structural timber saw to size, knocked together the wall frames and have stood them, a couple of deck posts up and one of the beams for the loft over the deck. Still need to square up and brace the walls, put the missing noggins and heads in.
Easy to see some of the progress we are making and should come together reasonably quickly from here on.

[DsGrouse]

Nice

[Hatchdog]

Looking great.

[220]

Have made a little more progress over the past week or so.
Squared and braced the framing, missing heads and noggins all in, second post and beam for the loft over the deck up along with the bearers/rafters and the floor down. The short loft walls are made and up, ridge beam made and spliced together. Even put a handrail on the front of the deck to stop me falling off into the creek.
Next step is to hoist the ridge beam install rafters then get some roofing on. Son headed into the mountains for a week or so after Christmas, he should be home in the next day or two. I did attempt to hoist the ridge beam solo but a 12" wide hardwood beam over 20' long is just too heavy and unmanagable on my own. I did get it up and on top of the framing and loft just needs to go up the final 4 feet to it final position.

[Ernie]

Looking good.

[daytime dave]

Great effort so far.